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Sunday, 12 February 2012

Live chat with Jane Espenson, The Walking Dead returns, interviews with Luc Roderique and William B. Davis

Three things to check out on TV tonight.

Jane Espenson's latest episode of Once Upon a Time, "Skin Deep," airs tonight at 8 pm ET. Jane will do a live Q&A on Twitter during the West Coast airing. From ABC's press release:

Fans of ABC's hit drama, "Once Upon a Time" will be able to submit questions and receive real-time responses from writer/consulting producer Jane Espenson, who will be up on Twitter at @JaneEspenson during the West Coast broadcast of the show on SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12 from 8:00-9:00 p.m., PT. Espenson will also offer commentary and behind-the-scenes anecdotes about working on the show.

On Sunday's episode, "Skin Deep" - which was written by Espenson -- after Mr. Gold's house is robbed, Emma keeps a close eye on him when it looks like he wants to track down the criminal and dole out some vigilante justice as payback, and Valentine's Day finds Mary Margaret, Ruby and Ashley (Jessy Schram, "Falling Skies") having a girls' night out. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was, Belle (Emilie de Ravin, "Lost") agrees to a fateful deal to give up her freedom in order to save her town from the horrors of the Ogre war.

When Samurai Apocalypse hits a lyrical roadblock with his protege, he calls on the best writer he knows: Hank Moody, who unites with Kali to imbibe, bear his soul, and write a song that takes Hank back in time to an era when he, Karen and Charlie were happier and life was simpler before “A Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” But the present comes roaring back when Karen shows up at Hank’s door, worried that she made a mistake.

Eric is currently working on another episode of Glee. It's episode 3x15, "Big Brother," with Matt Bomer guest starring. Based on the Fox spring schedule and a few other things, it will air on April 10 at 8 pm.
Elsewhere:

Two new interviews with William B. Davis showed up on the web this week. You can listen to the first one at XFilesTruth.com.

The second interview is at The Morton Report. (Distinct David Duchovny theme today.) Snippets:

You wrote the season 7 episode “En Ami”, which you say in the book went through some major rewrites by Chris Carter. The basis of the story, however, was yours. Smoking Man was always linked to Mulder for obvious reasons but since he was with Scully for the entire episode, what are your thoughts on his relationship and interactions with her?
This is what prompted the whole idea for the story. Here we’d done seven years and I still hadn’t done a scene with Gillian. It seemed like an interesting relationship to explore and that’s what prompted the story. The character goes through a certain degree of conversion in that episode. It’s one of those things you never know: was that a good idea or not? It was kind of like once the villain starts to soften inside, have you lost something of the arc of the story? Certainly as an actor and for the development of the character it was interesting to explore how that exposure to Scully actually changed him and how he allowed some humanity to develop.

What’s next on your agenda?
I just did this low-budget science fiction feature and a pilot for TV and I’ve got another feature coming up in a couple of weeks. Then I’ll go to France and be with my wife for a month because I just got married not too long ago.

Sunflower Hour with Kacey Rohl and Ben Cotton will have its New York premiere at MoMA in March. Details at MoMA.org.

Here is a new, extended trailer for Beyond the Black Rainbow, with Eva Allan:

Set in the strange and oppressive emotional landscape of the year 1983, Beyond The Black Rainbow is a Reagan-era fever dream inspired by hazy childhood memories of midnight movies and Saturday morning cartoons.

You can also watch the trailer on Apple's site. The film will be released in theatres later this year. Magnet Releasing hasn't set a date yet. For more info about the film, see the film's FB page.

What do you think about when you think about hip-hop? Gangbangers? Violence? Thug lives? Worse misogynists than the Taliban? How about words?

That’s what Patrick McDonald, the director of Ash Rizin, the first hip-hop musical produced by Alberta Theatre Projects, discovered when he took on the project. “Language is a huge thing in this,” he says. “The lyrics are really important — it (language) really advances it (the plot).”

“Definitely,” says Luc Roderique, who plays Dee Skillz in the show. “The bad rap that rap has gotten in the past is kind of changing these days. A lot more hip-hop artists who were more underground 10 years ago are now CEO’s of companies... showing they have something to say about the society they were brought up in.

“Rap,” he adds, “came out of struggle. It came out of anger from a society that wasn’t working for the people who were spitting these rhymes. People, on a larger scale, are starting to recognize that much more.”

Hiro Kanagawa, Tom McBeath and Dmitry Chepovetsky also have some theatre work coming up. From Playbill:

At the Bluma Appel Theatre, Tear the Curtain!, a "stylish psychological thriller" by Jonathon Young and Kevin Kerr, will run Oct. 7-20. Co-created and directed by Kim Collier, the cast includes David Adams, Scott Bellis, Craig Erickson, Hiro Kanagawa, Tom McBeath, Dawn Petten, Gerard Plunkett, James Fagan Tait and Jonathon Young.